Why does the same crowd sometimes reach consensus and sometimes shatter into camps that no longer speak? The Deffuant model imposes a single condition: two people who meet move closer only if their views differ by less than a confidence threshold; anything further apart is simply tuned out. A wide threshold around 0.4 draws everyone to one point; drop it to 0.15 and two poles separate; drop it to 0.12 and the crowd crumbles into small self-affirming clusters. A handful of people who never change their minds is enough to pin the poles apart even when the majority stays open.
Why does the same crowd sometimes reach consensus and sometimes shatter into camps that no longer speak? The Deffuant model imposes a single condition: two people who meet move closer only if their views differ by less than a confidence threshold; anything further apart is simply tuned out. A wide threshold around 0.4 draws everyone to one point; drop it to 0.15 and two poles separate; drop it to 0.12 and the crowd crumbles into small self-affirming clusters. A handful of people who never change their minds is enough to pin the poles apart even when the majority stays open.
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